Customer Journey Mapping

> For colleagues in any customer service organisation

> Facilitated workshop sessions & user focus groups

> First-step activity in customer service enhancement

The start point for developing world-class customer service is to understand the differing journeys experienced by customers. Excellence comes from isolating customer journeys, identifying ‘moments of truth’ (MoTs) within each journey and enhancing performance in the key areas important to customers.

Performance in People works in partnership with stakeholders to understand the range of journeys offered to service users. We work with you to:

Identify customer journeys

Map out selected journeys

Identify MoTs for measurement (user focus groups)

Create benchmark measures of performance

From the mapping and measurement process, it becomes possible for customer service organisations to create a position statement of current performance. This base measurement forms the basis for decision making on development activities to create change.

Follow-up change strategies for consideration may include:

Restructuring the operating model

Revising or developing new processes

Amending or creating Service Standards

Training to create new behaviours

Sustaining new behaviours through on-the-job coaching

Maintaining regular measurement through Mystery Shopping assessments

Maintaining regular measurement through Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Performance in People provides consultative support in all these development areas.

Performance in People launched a highly comprehensive and engaging mystery shopping programme, which has had a significant impact on Argos customer service standards.

“First and foremost are how professional Performance in Peopleis and their attention to detail. Mystery Shopping has improved performance within Argos, and certainly from a customer service angle, by some fantastic measures. The information and reporting side of the PIP platform is really detailed. Far and away the most powerful thing we have done in most recent times to help improve customer service within Argos stores.”

"Having established a good operational discipline in my business that was performing in line with the market I was looking for the ‘X Factor’ that would move my business to the next level. I believed that I had the right people in my team and that ultimately they would be the ones would make the difference. They were technically good and very disciplined but we lacked the X Factor and we did not have full commitment at all levels.

Working with PiP and in particular the Continue and Begin® coaching model we have made very significant progress. We have far greater ownership of issues at all levels and real commitment to improve our performance. It is not uncommon to hear comments like 'The Continue and Begin® coaching tool has changed my life both inside and outside of work!"

Our business results have improved in a very tough market and I am certain that our involvement with PiP has been a key factor."

Performance in People was delighted to be awarded the Countrywide Farmers programme following a comprehensive tender selection process to identify the most appropriate agency to develop their Customer Engagement Programme.

“What really stood out for us about Performance in People’s approach was their complete solution. They initially worked directly with stores to refine our service proposition with specific emphasis on the key behaviours that impact on great customer experience. This was followed by preparation and roll out of the training which was bespoke to Countrywide and finally using ongoing customer research and mystery shopping alongside a consistent coaching methodology to ensure a culture of continuous customer service improvement. The initial feedback from the events has been fantastic with everyone embracing the training and excited about the ongoing programme.”

Steve Collard, Stores Director for Countrywide Farmers

Countrywide Farmers dates back over 100 years and today is recognised as the leading supplier of products and services to the rural community. A key emphasis is to deliver consistent quality, value for money and exceptional service across the Farming, Smallholder, Equestrian, Rural Business and Country Home sectors, delivered through their Retail Stores, Direct Sales teams and On-Line.

Your Move Estate Agents with 340 branches nationwide, commissioned Performance In People to carry out an extensive video mystery shopping exercise across their branch network.

Performance in People sent their assessors posing as potential buyers into each of Your Move’s offices to enquire about local properties. Wearing hidden video cameras, they captured the entire customer experience and provided a full evaluation of the level of service offered together with the general image of the company.

This programme was the first of its kind to be conducted nationally for a UK estate agency chain. Each Branch was scored on how staff presented themselves and the company, how they handled customer queries and their level of efficiency, knowledge and helpfulness. Your Move was also interested to see how effectively their computer based property viewing system, Preview, which streamlines the whole house buying and selling process for customers, was being used.

"At Your Move we are determined that our customers have no cause for complaint. The aim of the programme was to show us exactly what level of service our customers receive and see Your Move through their eyes. The results of the programme have been extremely positive, they have enabled us to recognise high levels of service performance, identify areas for improvement and provided us with an exceptional training tool."

Arco has started a new venture with Performance in People in the delivery of their customer experience improvement methodologies. Performance in People work closely with Arco to measure and develop their sales, service and customer experience performance.

Arco is a fourth generation; family owned business committed to keeping people safe at work. Arco works with organisations to keep their workplaces safe and compliant. They have been putting people first for 125 years. That's why they pride themselves in being the Experts in Safety.

The Arco Company has grown from a small venture in Hull to become the UK's largest distributor of safety and maintenance products. Their National Distribution Centre holds an impressive 22,000 products and with a network of 41 branches covering the UK and Ireland, Arco ensure that their customers can get what they need when they need it.

''We may be a small channel within the overall business but we all work as a team, we get the job done, give our customers a great experience and have some fun doing it!.''

Mike Kennedy, Trade Counters-Merchandise Manager, Arco

Arco hold an annual National Sales Conference, the most recent being in the Magna Science and Adventure Centre in Rotherham. Everyone in the Arco sales channel attended the conference, from their joint Managing Director’s, Chairman, Sales Managers and Account Managers! The theme for the all-day event was ‘At the Movies’… can you guess the movie? Some of these Minions pictured below include Trade Counter Managers and Area Managers for the North and South Regions.

When FatFace were looking for a sustainable training solution to drive sales and customer experience improvements through the retail stores they turned to Performance in People (PiP).

Mike Dalloz, Managing Director of Performance in People commented,

“FatFace as an organisation has an incredibly positive culture, with some exceptional ‘crew’ which was an amazing place to start. Our job was to identify what great really looked like in terms of sales performance, process and behaviours, and to ensure this was communicated across the business in a simple, structured way that would encourage implementation and sustainability.”

A training programme was rolled out across the retail estate, with the content centred around a newly defined Customer Journey Map, which articulated the 4 core process pillars and the 6 key behaviours that made up the perfect customer experience.

To ensure the programme achieved the desired sustainability, regular video mystery shopping was implemented together with the introduction of a new coaching methodology for store managers. This approach ensured the mystery shopping output was used in a positive way for the purpose of continuous team development.

From the start FatFace recognised the importance of staff behaviours in delivering an exceptional customer experience. To reinforce this awareness, badges have been created which represent each of the 6 key behaviours that make up PiP’s Behavioural Measurement Score®. If as part of the mystery shop a member of staff achieves the maximum score of 5 for one of the key behaviours (e.g. Friendly) they are awarded the relevant behaviour badge. When a member of staff has collected all 6 badges, FatFace rewards the member of staff with an additional day off on their birthday and a personal birthday card!

Mark Seager, Multi-Channel Director of FatFace commented,

“We had been talking to our crew about how to improve our customer experience for several years and made limited progress. What Performance in People have done for us in the last six months has been transformational. The programme has given our crew a simple and clear customer journey to aim for, and importantly the coaching tools to support them to deliver it. The results speak for themselves; customer feedback, conversion rates and LFL sales have all been positively impacted. Thank you.”

FatFace were one of the few winners over the Christmas trading period, announcing a 12% increase in total sales in the five weeks to January 2018.

For many years Kwik Fit have been passionate about the quality of service delivered to it's customers.

"We are number one in the market place and we recognize that exceptional service is what customers look for. Working with Performance in People, we have been able to build a highly successful programme that captures the realities of our customers’ experiences and provides a platform for each of our service centre teams to improve the customer sales experience, influence customer loyalty and ultimately maximize sales opportunities."

David White Customer Service Director, Kwik Fit

The Kwik-Fit Group is the largest independent automotive parts, repair and replacement specialist in Europe and one of the largest in the world. With 1,800 service outlets across Europe it employs 9,000 people. Kwik-Fit has national UK coverage of 670 service centres and more than 200 mobile tyre fitting vehicles, making it the UK’s leading tyre, exhaust, brake and MoT specialist. The Group, established in 1971, is owned by PAI Partners. The pan European private equity firm completed its acquisition of the Group in August 2005.

Kwik-Fit has received more than 50 business and customer awards. Most recently it was voted ‘best fast fit’ company for the 13th year running at the Fleet Excellence Awards.

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK is Performance in People’s (PiP’s) longest standing client and has been working together since 2002! Originally starting with a small telephone mystery shop programme, we now provide today a comprehensive range of services across their sales and aftersales divisions. Customer experience measures include: video, telephone, email mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys.

A key focus for the Management team at Mitsubishi Motors in the UK has been on ‘Excellent Service’ and with the specific needs of customers of its off-road and plug-in hybrid vehicles, Mitsubishi Motors in the UK recognise that their key point of differentiation is to provide all of their customers, staff and associates with Excellent Service. Therefore, this is a priority for Mitsubishi not only today but also moving forwards when ever-more advanced and exciting vehicles will see more and more customers choosing a Mitsubishi vehicle.

Sharon Townsend, General Manager - Service, commented,

"It has been amazing to have PiP as part of the Mitsubishi family for the last 15 years. They have helped us to nurture our feedback mechanisms to give us a complete view of the Mitsubishi Customer Experience. Using the many tools that they provide, we continue to provide Excellent Service to all our customers and we are proud to display these results as dealer star ratings on our website”.

Performance in People embarked on a training and development venture for the sales departments of kitchens, bathrooms, and conservatories within B&Q.

“We chose ‘PiP’ above their competitors, as they were renowned for the expertise in the field of mystery shopping through covert operation; together with their ability to put their findings into training and development and hence drive business results. …they produced a rigorous sales and service training package evolving from what they had witnessed through mystery shopping a large selection of our stores. They did this by writing a two day training workshop that they trained into our Sales Support Managers, who in turn delivered it to our in store sales people; through effective coaching ‘one to one’ from PiP employees.

The net results were outstanding, as we witnessed significant revenue and profit increases year on year over a two-year period. In addition to this, we also experienced a vast increase in market share, which saw us grow from third to first in the U.K. for kitchen project business.”

Mat Morgan, Sales Development Team, B&Q PLC

“We have a really great relationship with Performance in People. The products they offer are really high quality and the best I have seen in the market. The programmes that PiP ran for B&Q have had a great impact on the business. We have seen an increase in average order value within Kitchens, Bedrooms and Bathrooms and an increase in conversions from leads to sales, so good results!”

Performance in People was delighted to be awarded the prestigious Ladbrokes video mystery shopping contract following a comprehensive tender selection process, to support the new Customer Experience programme in Ladbrokes Retail.

Ladbrokes dates back to 1886 and today is a world-leader in the global betting and gaming market with over 2,000 shops and employing in excess of 13,000 in the UK alone.

“We were really impressed with PiP’s knowledge and capability in relation to developing retail service standards. They demonstrated innovative ways of measuring and developing behaviours, which was a great fit with our new customer experience programme and their ability to adapt and roll out a fresh approach to training and coaching to support the video mystery shopping programme provided the sustainability we were looking for. Early results have already exceeded our expectations.”

Performance in People have worked with Virgin Media for a number of years delivering a range of mystery shopping, performance improvement activities and training programmes.

“I’ve worked with numerous suppliers over the years within other businesses that I have worked for and I rate Performance in People as definitely the best. They are always looking to improve the programme and always receptive to new ideas. I think the way that they work is very hands on, we work very closely together. The way that the whole programme is managed from start to finish is really positive.”

James Coleman Tye, Talent & Development Lead Business Partner at Virgin Media

“PiP have worked hard to ensure our internal trainers are comfortable and confident in the delivery of Continue & Begin Fast Coaching. Their enthusiasm and attention to detail have ensured we feel capable as a business to really make a difference using fast coaching. The positive impact Continue & Begin is having in Virgin Media is already shining through. Managers and coaches are focussing on behavioural coaching rather than the traditional technical coaching and is reaping great benefits. The support PiP offer on an on-going basis will ensure the impact the model is having will continue. Continue & Begin is part of our DNA now and long may that continue.”

Performance in People (PiP) is delighted to share that we have been working with PANDORA to improve customer experience across their network through the use of Video Mystery Shopping.

“By introducing the Behavioural Measurement Score® into our Mystery Shopping programme at PANDORA, it has allowed us to distinguish between the actual steps within the Mystery Shopping programme, and the way in which those steps are delivered. We don’t want it to be a ‘ticking the box’ exercise, we want to be thinking about how our behaviour impacts the experience of the customer. Having the video element means that the stores can understand exactly how they have been scored, and is a visual tool to show the journey of the Mystery Shopper from start to finish. It has been a great opportunity for our stores to be really recognised for the areas they have worked so hard to be successful in, and has given them a chance to see what aspects of their business they can focus on developing.”

For London Underground, mystery shopping has been used as an important tool to measure and improve standards, when the programme came up for re-tender, London Underground were looking for a supplier who could bring the highest quality standards and the use of new technologies to the bring programme into a new dimension.

"The level of service delivered to our customers has always been a top priority for us. To achieve consistently high levels of service we have used recorded telephone mystery within our call centres as an important measurement and staff development tool. In February 2006 after conducting an extensive tender selection process, we chose Performance In People to become our new mystery shopping provider. We were particularly impressed with their technologies and the ability to listen to all mystery shopping calls via their online facility; this combined with comprehensive reporting capabilities and significant cost savings has resulted in a much improved programme."

Performance in People, specialists at measuring and improving customer service and sales performance skills, has announced a programme with Volvo Car UK Ltd.

Performance in People was hired by the car manufacturer to undertake an extensive mystery shopping and dealer coaching programme. It embarked on a range of mystery shopping programmes across Volvo's UK dealer network to measure and develop the behaviour required to deliver a better customer experience. In addition, it has organised a coaching programme to develop sales teams and managers to improve the customer experience.

"This has been a very exciting programme. Volvo wasn't just interested in measuring performance standards, they were committed to achieving sustainable changes in behaviours.

To achieve this we had to go to the heart of all dealerships and transfer coaching capabilities in how to recognise, encourage and develop all levels of sales and service performance. Combining a mystery shopping programme with coaching for Volvo's managers has meant translating the company's highly successful P.R.I.D.E. service standards into measurable structured reporting, so delivering a robust, credible programme that provides high quality and accurate material for the newly empowered coaches to work with."

Mike Dalloz, Managing Director, Performance in People.

"For Volvo here in the UK thinking ahead about what matters most to our customers is a unique opportunity for us define our customer experience & differentiate our brand in the market place.

We have used PIP's video mystery shopping for a number of years during which time we have looked to refine our approach; moving from compliance to delivering a coaching tool that adds insight & focus throughout our organisation. We continue to find ways of using mystery shopping to support our network development not only at an operational level, but also by making links to our Leadership development programmes, customer journey design and product offerings.

Video mystery shopping allows us to see ourselves through the eyes of our customers; not only helping us get the basics right, but also by identifying the emotional triggers required to truly understand what our customers want."

Simon Parrott, Retail Quality & Customer Experience Manager

Following on from the success of the coaching programme for sales managers, Volvo have extended the programme to all aftersales managers.

Performance in People has been selected to maximise Ford of Britain’s national dealership network potential through a mystery shopper programme, to further improve its sales performance and customer experience. Ford has the UK’s largest dealership network and highest market share, at over 14 percent, and has selected Performance in People to increase its sales share even further.

David Cross, Quality & Loyalty Manager at Ford of Britain commented,

“Mystery Shopping has always played an important role in trying to understand the experiences of customers. More recently however we identified that we needed to take our customer experience to the next level, so we launched a comprehensive tender selection process to find a supplier who could deliver a programme that would really engage our dealer network. Following this process, we were delighted to award the contract to Performance In People. Their innovative approach, professionalism and sheer enthusiasm will be very well received by our dealers as we launch our new programmes during 2018”

Mike Dalloz, Managing Director of Performance in People added,

“It has been a real pleasure working with David and his team. Right from the start Ford was impressed by our Behavioural Measurement Score and was determined that the programme place equal emphasis on both process and behaviours. Furthermore there was a recognition that the mystery shopping output needed to be reviewed in a consistent and structured way to ensure that dealers got the most out of every mystery shop. Early signs are very encouraging that together we will build a new programme that we are truly proud of.”

Performance in People (PiP) has been working closely with the Steinhoff Group to improve customer experience across their two UK brands, Bensons for Beds and Harveys. Steinhoff recognise that customer service is key to success and since starting their programme with us in July 2016, the results of Video Mystery Shop combined with the award winning Behavioural Measurement Score® (BMS®) has provided an invaluable insight into the levels of service received.

The Steinhoff group was founded in 1964 by Bruno Steinhoff in Westerstede, Germany. It is now one of the top five furniture groups in Europe who manufactures, warehouses, retails and distributes a wide range of household goods (mainly within the lounge, dining and bedroom sectors) as well as raw materials used primarily in manufacturing these household goods. Steinhoff own more than 70 factories spanning the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. Employing over 50,000 staff globally, Steinhoff are a major player in the global furniture economy.

We’ve had mystery shopping programmes within the business previously but PiP’s offering, particularly the insight BMS® provides, has given us a deeper understanding of how we can positively influence customer experience everyday in every interaction across our retail estate. This coupled with PiP’s emphasis on equipping front line managers and featured team members with impactful coaching resources has helped create a workforce that is more aware than ever of how to really connect with our customers and their needs.

“We decided to look around at a number of different training consultancies. We wanted someone that matched our requirements, both in terms of our culture, our passion, our enthusiasm and we stumbled upon, through recommendation by Visa, Performance in People.

As soon as we met Performance in People we knew that we’d got the right people – they certainly matched our expectations, and it was all about developing the training needs analysis and so on. Now, we have had a magnificent relationship with these guys, going forward, and it really has benefited all of us.

The benefits that we have had, some of them we expected, but some of the other benefits we didn’t expect. We didn’t expect people to look forward so much to the training events themselves. We thought they would see that as a bit of a chore, and that they would come away from these things having learnt a few things…the percentages are, I think, you remember 10% of what you learn on a training course.

Through working with PiP but also through using with our own training coaches, we’ve seen that retention of knowledge just be sky high, because of the events themselves, because of the commitments that we’ve made to affirming that knowledge after the event, and we hope to continue that relationship with PiP going forward for a considerable amount of time.”

Performance in People beat off stiff competition to win the prestigious account having proposed a fully integrated programme that would measure and develop the customer service and sales performance levels across all of Vauxhall's UK retailers. Most importantly, the programme emphasizes on both improving new customer acquisition and existing customer relationships. The main body of the programme utilizes Video Mystery Shopping activities (this is where assessors visit retailers posing as customers; their experiences are captured via state of the art hidden video cameras and provided back to each retailer to improve sales and service standards). With 55% of human communication conveyed through body language, Video Mystery Shopping is a key element in monitoring, measuring and evaluating experiences against prescribed standards or promises of a company like Vauxhall.

Unlike any other service, Video Mystery Shopping allows team members to review their performance, allowing a much deeper recognition and understanding of customer service performance, and so creating sustainable changes in staff behaviour.

"It was clear from the start that Vauxhall were not going to compromise on this programme. They have a very clear objective in mind and that is firstly to ensure that every individual that interacts with their retailers (whether by visiting, telephoning or electronically) has an exceptional customer experience, and secondly, to ensure that best practice sales techniques are being adopted to maximize sales conversions.

It's great to see such an influential automotive company going to such lengths to ensure flawless customer service across their network. The introduction of a comprehensive mystery shopping programme demonstrates Vauxhall's dedication to their customers and their determination to provide the best service.”

Mike Dalloz, Managing Director, Performance in People

Vauxhall's partnership with Performance in People clearly shows their desire to take the company to the next level of service, by developing its customer service potential:

“It is important that existing customers and new prospective customers have a great experience when they come into our retailers and we want to guarantee that our customer service is not only exceptional on the forecourt and in the showroom, but that our after sales service is just as effective when handling service enquiries. Performance in People is a perfect fit for us. Their experience in the industry meant they really understood our needs. This, combined with an impressive use of technologies to provide highly refined systems and processes, ensured that we are getting the highest quality output together with industry leading online reporting capabilities.”

Performance in People (PiP) is thrilled to report on the way in which Specsavers has adopted our award winning Behavioural Measurement Score® (BMS®) research methodology as a part of their comprehensive video mystery shopping programme.

PiP’s relationship flourished with Specsavers receiving a luxurious coffee hamper from the Isle of Wight, which formed a part of the marketing team’s direct mail campaign. As a result of this, PiP successfully presented a complimentary video mystery shopping pilot for HQ to demonstrate the sophistication and in-depth analysis BMS® would enable them to measure. Specsavers is an experienced user of mystery shopping and therefore this level of analysis enabled them to take customer experience to the next level.

Following Specsavers attendance at our BMS® Launch event in June last year, PiP conducted a video mystery shopping pilot across 15 stores which measured against their existing sales processes alongside the six key behaviours. The pilot proved to be another great success and confirmed Specsavers beliefs as a company.

FULL LAUNCH OF BMS® ACROSS THE NETWORK

As the pilot, which incorporated BMS®, proved to provide a significant advantage to measuring customer experience, Specsavers agreed to a full video mystery shop programme across more than 740 stores. The programme was announced to the network at their Partner Conference in November last year. During the presentation the network were shown a compilation from their partners which reported on the huge success and advantages they have encountered from BMS® since the pilot. The video was a really powerful tool which demonstrated the ways in which BMS® made a significant impact and the success which followed after rolling it out across the partners.

BMS® MERCHANIDSE

The customer insights team at Specsavers hosted a stand at the conference which displayed an array of BMS® branded merchandise. The range included: BMS® branded Rubik’s cubes, BMS® travel mugs which incorporated the six key behaviours and BMS® banner pens. The team were even wearing BMS® branded t-shirts! Following the launch of BMS® to the network at the conference, each store received a bundle which incorporated 6 ceramic mugs with each of the six key behaviours, BMS® Rubik’s cubes and BMS® banner pens. They are even in the process of designing BMS® postcards!

"BMS®is a fantastic new concept for Specsavers and it has been innovative in the way we view good customer service. It has really helped us develop a clear understanding of the behaviours that build stronger relationships with our customers. No longer are we just ticking a box to follow a process we now have the tools to help our staff deliver a great experience. Since its introduction BMS has been positively embraced across Specsavers and stores are already seeing this making a difference to their customer’s experiences."

Performance in People (PiP) has been working closely with ŠKODA to create a powerful customer experience programme to engage the UK network. This programme includes a combination of mystery shop methods including video, telephone and email which helps to celebrate success and create sustainable change.

“It has been a pleasure to work with Performance in People over the past year, who have played a key role in helping to drive our business forward as we continue to enhance the customer experience through the delivery of our Driven By Something Different Strategy. The ŠKODA Sales Mystery Shop programme has formed a key part of that, providing us with an effective insight into the customer journey which has given us the data and understanding to make impactful changes.”

Mercedes have recognized for some years, the benefits that a properly planned mystery shopping programme can bring to their organization, explains John Fossey Sales Development manager for Mercedes Car Group. ‘What we were looking for, was to take our mystery shopping programme to the next level, to add real value in terms of performance measurement and sustainable improvements in the customer experience’. Mercedes Car Group undertook a comprehensive tender selection process to find the most appropriate supplier.

"We selected PiP for several key reasons, firstly we already knew that they had a wealth of experience in running high volume programmes, when we visited their premises, we could see how they had developed their own technology infrastructure to provide highly refined processes and quality standards, that really fitted with us as an organizational. In addition their proposal centered on fulfilling two key criteria, initially developing a bespoke web-reporting platform that provided seamless accessibility for appropriate personnel to all mystery shopping data, being able to review telephone calls, complete action planning and provide a suite of consolidated reporting, all available online. This facility also integrated with our centralized training function identifying training needs and ensuring implementation. Secondly PiP focused on the need to translate mystery shopping output into real changes in staff behaviour. This was achieved by delivering coaching skills training to all our sales managers together with a prescribed mechanism for reviewing the mystery shopping activity. The key to consistent improvement was through ensuring a consistent review process, not just for the staff featured within the mystery shop, but as a learning tool for all customer facing staff within each retailer."

Cookies are files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. Some features on this site will not function if you do not allow cookies. Click 'Allow Cookies' to enable cookies and remove this message.

These cookies allow us to count page visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site, using a service provided by Google Analytics.